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AMD denies it misled consumers by exaggerating Bulldozer core count

Firm accused of 'tricking' customers

AMD IS BEING sued for allegedly misleading consumers by exaggerating specifications of its Bulldozer processors.

The lawsuit against the US chip giant notes "allegations of deceptive marketing" by overstating the number of cores contained in the chip, with the firm accused of claiming there is eight cores when in reality there is only four.

When released, the Bulldozer x86 processor was said to be the first ever eight-core desktop chip, having four modules, each with two cores, that are completely unlocked for easier overclocking - something designed to make it appeal to both PC builders and multimedia and gaming enthusiasts.

According to LegalNewsline, the class action lawsuit was filed by some dude called Tony Dickey. It was filed on behalf of himself and others on 26 October in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose.

Dickey alleges that because the chips possess four cores, not eight, as advertised, they can only perform half the amount of calculations simultaneously. As a result, he accuses AMD of "tricking" consumers into buying its Bulldozer processors by overstating the number of cores contained in the chips.

The suit alleges AMD built the Bulldozer processors by stripping away components from two cores and combining what was left to make a single module, and in doing so, the cores no longer work independently. Therefore, it argues that AMD's Bulldozer CPUs suffer from material performance degradation, and cannot perform eight instructions simultaneously and independently as claimed.

Dickey is particularly angry because he thinks average consumers in the computer CPU market lack the technical expertise to understand the design of AMD's processors and therefore rely on the company to convey accurate specifications. He says that because AMD did not do this, "tens of thousands of consumers have been misled into buying Bulldozer CPUs", which can't perform the way an eight-core CPU would.

He is suing for damages, including statutory and punitive damages, litigation expenses, pre- and post-judgment interest, as well as other injunctive and declaratory relief as is deemed reasonable.